


Up Against The Wall

by charleeluciano



Category: Shameless (US)
Genre: Alternate Universe, M/M, We're stuck in a broken elevator together AU, based off Cloud Atlas
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-11
Updated: 2015-01-11
Packaged: 2018-03-07 03:03:44
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,068
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3158822
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/charleeluciano/pseuds/charleeluciano
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mickey gets stuck with a guy he just met in an elevator when it breaks down. Maintenance says at least an hour before it's fixed.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Up Against The Wall

**Author's Note:**

> This is really heavily based off a scene in Cloud Atlas where 2 people get stuck in an elevator. Part 2/2 of the fics i'm posting tonight. I really liked writing this one, not sure why.
> 
> Title taken from Battle Born by The Killers (I'm obsessed okay? okay.)

Mickey stood tapping his foot waiting for the goddamn slowest elevator in the world apparently. He was on his way up for a meeting with some north side prick who'd said he had a position open for Mickey to do labour work for whatever big carpentry company bullshit he was in or whatever. His dad knew a guy who knew a guy and on and on it goes, but the tosser who'd offered him a job had absolutely no street smarts, and once he saw Mickey's knuckle tattoos, he'd probably shy away from the offer. Mickey was hoping to be able to at least swipe a few things he could pawn off from the office when he got politely kicked out.

Suddenly there came raised voices from one of the office stalls on the level and then a smash.

"Look, Luke, please, just leave, I’ll see you at home." A beautiful red head in a dark blue shirt with a grey striped tie and suit pants stepped out of the stall, walking down the corridor towards Mickey.

"Ian we're not done here!" A taller, wider man followed him, with short buzzed off dark hair. He seemed out of place in the corporate environment and Mickey decided he probably didn't work here.

The elevator dinged and he stepped inside the small empty box and heard more shouting before a "Hold the door!" was let out and Mickey almost punched the "open doors" button inside the elevator. The doors that were closing re-opened and the redhead bounded in before repeatedly hitting the "close doors".

They closed and the guy hit a number and slumped against the bar running against one of the elevator walls.

"And here I was thinking chivalry was dead." He said and Mickey looked over, raising an eyebrow but not responding further.

"Sorry about that," he pressed on, ignoring the usually crystal clear "fuck off" signs that Mickey exhibited.

"He gets really jealous and thought I was having an affair or something but I’ve just got a deadline for these draft blueprint plans and I’ve been staying late at work. You know-"

"Why you tellin' me this?" Mickey asked, interrupting him. "I don't even fuckin' know you."

He smiled and flushed pink.

"Sorry. I can't shut up sometimes. I guess-"

The lights went black and they jolted to a halt, both of them falling to the floor.

The lights came on again but they were red. Emergency lights. Great.

"Fuuuuck." Mickey whined out.

"Holy shit, you okay?" The guy asked.

"Fine."

"I'll call the lobby." He said and Mickey decided to stay on the floor and sit the call out.

"Hello? Yeah my name is Ian Gallagher, I work on floor 12, and the elevator I'm in has just broken down. We're okay but we were wondering when it'll be working again?"

Goddamn friendly, polite ginger.

"Okay. Thank you." He hung up and looked over at Mickey. "An hour at least they think."

Mickey leant his head against the wall and hung it back, looking at the ceiling. He let out a deep sigh.

"I'm Ian." He stuck out his hand in Mickey's direction. Mickey took it and added "Mickey." And "You work here?"

Ian nodded. "Bit of architecture here and there. Mainly I process blueprints and draw up the drafts. You?"

"Came for an interview." Mickey took out his cigarette pack and lighter and popped one between his lips. As he flicked the flame on, Ian piped up with "Wouldn't do that if I were you."

Mickey raised his eyebrows, cigarette hanging out of his mouth and flame still flickering near the cigarette when Ian pointed to the ceiling.

_ Smoke detector. _

_ Damn. _

 

* * *

Mickey tried to avoid talking to Ian for as long as he could, checking his phone or reading web pages but his battery was getting dangerously low with 16% remaining. He'd forgot to charge it the night before and could only sneak in 37% before leaving in the morning for the office. From the get go, it had just been a shitty morning and this was the cherry on the cake. When his phone struck 16% Mickey decided it was time to brave Ian and his never ending stories and asked "You got any siblings?"

Ian looked up from his own phone that he had turned to half an hour ago when Mickey had started ignoring him and turned to his own. He smiled and the poor thing so obviously couldn't see through Mickey's bullshit caring façade.

"Yeah! I got Fiona who's 32, and then I got Lip whose 25-"

"The fuck kind of name is 'Lip?'" Mickey cut in.

Ian laughed and by god it was a heaven sent pure and sexy laugh.

"It's short for Phillip. I guess he wanted to be a bit alty. So then there's me, then my little sister, Debbie, who's 19, my brother Carl who's 17, and-"

"Jesus Christ how many are there of you?" Mickey asked, almost exasperated.

"6. Last one is my baby brother Liam who's 10."

"Your parents know how to have a good time." Mickey commented drily.

"Shitty parents. Used to get fucked up, Monica would get knocked up, dump the baby with us and leave. Fiona was more of a mom than she ever was. What about you? Got any brothers and sisters?"

He nodded and said simply "Yeah. Six."

"Wow, big family too."

"We're all split up though. Got 5 older brothers, a little sister and a half sister from fucking somewhere."

"How old is your little sister."

"Three years younger so uh..." He paused thinking. "24."

"Oh same!" Ian said, full of joy. "What's her name? Maybe I know her from school or something?"

"Mandy Milkovich." He said simply. Ian froze.

"No fucking way! You're Mickey Milkovich?"

"One and only." he bit sarcastically.

"Is it true that you skipped a month off school because you got suspended for setting fire to one of the lab rat’s in biology?" Ian asked.

"Fuck no. Didn't even take biology." Mickey said, getting desperate for a smoke.

"Why did you go off school for so long then?" Ian asked.

"Deadbeat dad beat the shit out of me. Had to wait for a while for everything to heal up. Broke my arm."

"Shit man! What'd you do?"

"Fucked a guy."

Ian almost choked.

"You're gay?" He asked, voiced hushed like he didn't want anyone to hear.

Mickey nodded, nonchalant.

"And he found out?"

Mickey nodded. "Walked in."

"Shit.” Ian dragged out.

They stayed quiet for a bit before Mickey took his suit jacket off, complaining about it being "fucking stuffy." Ian hummed in agreement.

"Wait. Did you say your last name was Gallagher?" Mickey asked, remembering the phone call.

"Yeah."

"Not by any chance related to Frank Gallagher?"

Ian laughed.

"Mom fucked his brother so, yeah I'm a bastard."

"Not Frank's kid? Geez. That must have been a good day."

Ian laughed his beautiful laugh. Fucking sunshine and rainbows melted down and made into a single laugh.

Ian laid down with his hands tucked under his head and knees propped up.

"Not gonna start doing fucking sit ups are you?"

Mickey asked, sneaking a side eye to the redhead changing his position.  He giggled, fucking giggled! Mickey huffed out a laugh with him.

"You're crazy." Mickey huffed out and Ian turned his head and looked at Mickey, grinning.

"You know," he started, "Even though it sucks being stuck here, I guess I'm kind of glad it's with you."

Ian held his innocent smile and Mickey felt his heart lift a little but didn't let it show. He simply nodded.

"'Ey, uhh." Ian looked at him, questioning glance waiting for Mickey to continue.

"That guy that was going off at you downstairs?" He left it there, figuring Ian would work out what he was talking about.

"My boyfriend." Ian answered, looking away. "I think I'm going to break up with him."

Mickey let an awkward "Sorry" slip between them.

"Nah it's..." He paused. "He's just... Not the guy I thought he was, y'know?"

Mickey didn't answer but he knew.  An awkward silence fell in the elevator and Ian turned his head back to the ceiling, staring up at the chipped paint of the metal box.

* * *

 

"A hypothetical question for you," Ian began and Mickey turned to look at him.

"If I were to ask you on a date right now, would you say yes?"

Mickey sighed.

"You have a boyfriend."

"If I didn't."

He waited before saying "I don't do dates."

"Would you make an exception?"

He wracked his brain for excuses, in the back of his head he wondered why he was trying to find an excuse.

"I don't even know you-"

"Stop... Pretending like you don't know anything about me." Ian sat up, getting annoyed at Mickey's bullshit.

"We met like 40 minutes ago!"

"-And since then we've talked about my job, our families, we've laughed... I like you. This is basically what people do on dates anyway."

Mickey sighed and ran his hands over his face.

"Yes! Okay? I would have said yes."

Ian smirked and went back to staring at the ceiling.

"Saturday night?"

"You've got a boy-"

"I'm breaking up with him." Ian interrupted.

"No."

The lights came flickering on and the elevator started whirring again.  Ian looked up at the lights and then turned, confused.

"What?"

"I don't want to go out Saturday night."

"Is it because of Luke?"

"Yes!" Mickey said, exasperated.

"But I'm going to-"

"It doesn't matter, Ian! I don't want to know that you left him for... Whatever."

"Can I get your number?"

The elevator dinged and the doors opened, Mickey stepped out and left Ian alone in the elevator, cursing himself for walking away but knowing it was for the best.

* * *

 

He was right about his assumption that the boss guy, "Mr. Adams - Please, call me Jerry." would shy away from having him work after he saw Mickey's less than impressive credentials and his tattooed knuckles.  And he did get the forced smile "We'll be in touch." thrust upon him, but he did get to swipe some expensive looking paperweights that scored an extra $20 in his pocket from Ricky's pawn shop down near the only good pizza shop that was affordable on the south side. A nd he spent the rest of the week feeling shitty as fuck over some goddamn ginger that he blew off on a fucking date after knowing the guy for less than an hour.  Mandy caught on at about day 3 when his shitty mood didn't lift.  She asked why he was so cranky and he simply flipped her off which clued her up to stay away from him.  A week after the elevator incident, he casually slipped over dinner and asked if she remembered Ian Gallagher from high school.

"Oh yeah. Nice boy. Why?"

"Saw him the other day."

"Where?" She asked, stabbing a bit of pasta with her fork.

"Got trapped in an elevator with him."

"You know he's gay?" She said, raising her eyebrows. Oh the bitch knew.

Mickey shrugged and went back to his food.

"Mickey.” She knew.

He looked up.

"What happened?" She was smiling now.

Mickey couldn’t help the slight smile that crept onto his face.

"None of your business, skank."

"Asshole!"

"Bitchface!"

“Man whore!"

Mickey's face fell.

"How dare you?"

She almost wet herself laughing.

* * *

 

His phone buzzed at 10pm just as he was falling asleep. He groaned and fished around for it, pressed it on and was promptly blinded by the brightness.

When it adjusted he saw a Facebook message pending, so he unlocked his phone and tapped the message button.

Ian Gallagher

He opened it up.

** “He broke up with me. I didn’t break up with him” **

** "I’m sorry." **

** "Saturday?" **

** "told u i dont do dates" **

** "Fine. My place, booze, pizza and movies?" **

Mickey smiled at the phone.

** “address?” **

* * *

 

He stood at the door feeling out of place. Mandy had made comment that his original attire was a horrible choice, or so she gestured when she stuck her finger down her throat, and had picked him out a new outfit for his not-date.  He fidgeted with the buttons before knocking on the door.  It opened and Ian stood there, looking good himself.

“Hey. Come on in.”

He turned and Mickey followed, finally relaxing for the first time in the night.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you to the magnificent Erin for editing and fixing up my grammar mistakes.


End file.
